Website Screenshot API in Python: Viewport or Full-Page PNG, Paid per Call

Take a screenshot of a public web page from Python and save it as a PNG. /v1/screenshot returns the 1280x800 viewport for $0.008 and /v1/screenshot/full the whole scrollable page for $0.012, JavaScript rendered, paid per call in USDC on Base over x402. No signup or API key, and you are charged only when an image comes back.

Payment note: An unpaid call returns HTTP 402 with the exact x402 terms: scheme exact, network Base (eip155:8453), USDC, amount 8000 for /v1/screenshot or 12000 for /v1/screenshot/full (USDC has 6 decimals, so $0.008 and $0.012). The x402 client signs a payment for exactly that amount and retries the call. Payment settles only when an image comes back.

Steps

1. Install the x402 client. pip install "x402[requests,evm]" and export a Base wallet key holding a little USDC as AGENT_KEY. Use a dedicated wallet with a small balance.
2. Read the price for free. Call the endpoint without paying. The 402 response carries the terms in the PAYMENT-REQUIRED header and the same terms as JSON in the body.
3. Pay and capture. POST {"url": "https://..."} through the x402 session. It signs the payment and retries automatically.
4. Decode and save. The JSON response has url, full_page, format ("png"), content_type, width, height, bytes, image_base64, ms and attempts. Base64-decode image_base64 and write it to a .png file.
5. Handle the free failures. Not charged: 400 (URL not allowed: private or reserved address, credentials, non-default port), 502 (no image came back) and 503 (paused or at capacity).

Code

curl -s -i -G https://api.switch402.com/v1/screenshot -H 'User-Agent: my-agent/1.0' \
  --data-urlencode 'url=https://example.com' \
  | grep -i '^payment-required' | cut -d' ' -f2 | tr -d '\r' | base64 -d
# {"x402Version":2, ... "accepts":[{"scheme":"exact","network":"eip155:8453","amount":"8000", ...}]}
# /v1/screenshot/full answers the same way with "amount":"12000"

# pip install "x402[requests,evm]"
import os
from eth_account import Account
from x402 import x402ClientSync
from x402.http.clients import x402_requests
from x402.mechanisms.evm import EthAccountSigner
from x402.mechanisms.evm.exact import ExactEvmScheme

client = x402ClientSync()
client.register("eip155:8453", ExactEvmScheme(signer=EthAccountSigner(Account.from_key(os.environ["AGENT_KEY"]))))
session = x402_requests(client)
session.headers["User-Agent"] = "my-agent/1.0"

import base64

r = session.post("https://api.switch402.com/v1/screenshot", json={"url": "https://example.com"})  # $0.008
if r.status_code != 200:
    raise SystemExit(f"HTTP {r.status_code}: no image, not charged")
shot = r.json()
with open("example.png", "wb") as f:
    f.write(base64.b64decode(shot["image_base64"]))
print(shot["width"], "x", shot["height"], shot["bytes"], "bytes in", shot["ms"], "ms")

# uses the x402 session from the example above
import base64, re

urls = ["https://example.com", "https://example.org"]
for url in urls:
    r = session.post("https://api.switch402.com/v1/screenshot/full", json={"url": url})  # $0.012 each
    if r.status_code != 200:
        print(url, "skipped, HTTP", r.status_code, "(not charged)")
        continue
    shot = r.json()
    name = re.sub(r"[^a-z0-9]+", "-", url.lower()).strip("-") + ".png"
    with open(name, "wb") as f:
        f.write(base64.b64decode(shot["image_base64"]))
    print(name, shot["width"], "x", shot["height"])

You pay only for the pages you actually fetch: $0.008 per standard page on /v1/scrape, $0.003 per lite call on /v1/scrape/lite, in USDC on Base and charged only on success. No subscription or unused credits; optional prepaid packs and a $10 monthly plan.